The alien hypothesis?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

> always keep in mind that a considerable
> amount of the "purest" science is done this way; a gal
> or guy scribbling and thinking, and thinking and
> scribbling...simply because THEY, not some
> institiution, want to know what's possible...many
> people on this site seem to have no notion of that
> part of the scientific process; the part BEFORE it
> becomes "appropriated" by...larger interests..

Hi John Doe

I don't think there's anyone participating in the discussion or 
subscribed to this list who has no notion of this. Where's your 
evidence?

The point was that a lot of time (and money) is spent by 
scientists/"Science" investigating (the possibility of) the existence 
of alien life. Regardless of whether you can take that proposition 
seriously.

The institutionalisation of "Science" in Western society is a separate 
debate which could be had, but I'd make the point that there are a 
whole lot of scientists -- the majority, I'd say -- who are working for 
a wage and whose research schedule is dictated solely by the 
corporation or government agency they work for. Your model of the 
maverick genius with pad and pencil (starving in a garret etc) is a 
romantic ideal, a noble one to be sure, and there are certainly 
examples, but generally-speaking it's governments and the private 
enterprise sector which drive the agenda. (Pynchon ref: Yoyodyne corp. 
in Lot 49) Generally-speaking, research undertaken in the universities 
is also reliant on research grants which are administered by 
governments and corporations.

And, it's not a site, it's the pynchon discussion list.

best

On 16/10/2005, at 8:00 AM, John Doe wrote:

> Any kind of science backed by and reliant upon any
> kind of funding, whose source does not consider a
> certain persuit - like investigating whether or not
> Mars can support life - worth subsidizing, will not
> provide the resources for a team to do such
> investigating...this is , sadly, how the world
> works....HOWEVER...there are many - all of CETI and
> Frank Drake to name just the most prominent ( or
> loudest ) - scientists who do such work , to the best
> of their limited ability, with pad and pencil, so to
> speak....always keep in mind that a considerable
> amount of the "purest" science is done this way; a gal
> or guy scribbling and thinking, and thinking and
> scribbling...simply because THEY, not some
> institiution, want to know what's possible...many
> people on this site seem to have no notion of that
> part of the scientific process; the part BEFORE it
> becomes "appropriated" by...larger interests..
>
>
> --- jbor at bigpond.com wrote:
>
>> Actually, "Science" does seem to spend an awful lot
>> of time (and money)
>> investigating whether Mars could support, or has
>> supported, organic
>> life and so forth. I'd imagine that the probability
>> of the existence of
>> "life" elsewhere in the universe could be calculated
>> scientiffically,
>> i.e. via some sort of equation where the expanse of
>> the known universe
>> is moderated against the likelihood of environmental
>> and chemical
>> conditions needed to generate and sustain "life"
>> manifesting
>> spontaneously. I suspect that the odds would be
>> quite good.
>> Hypothetically-speaking, that is.
>>
>> As to "intelligent life" or UFOs, well, that'd be a
>> separate equation.
>> Or a derivative of the first. But the concept of
>> "intelligent life" is
>> problematic in that it's another one of those
>> self-defining systems or
>> semantic constructs. And, coming at it from another
>> perspective, it's a
>> little but egotistical, if not downright
>> solipsistic, to assume for
>> oneself the mantle of supreme being in all of
>> existence.
>>
>> Anyway, Pynchon ref: Vineland pp. 63-7.
>>
>> best
>>
>>> From: KXX4493553@[omitted]
>>> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:00:31 EDT
>>> Subject: Re: Big Bang?
>>> To: tristero69@[omitted], jbor@[omitted],
>> pynchon-l@[omitted]
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------------------------1129104031
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>>>
>>> =20
>>> In einer eMail vom 12.10.2005 03:51:35
>> Westeurop=E4ische Normalzeit
>>> schreibt=
>>>  =20
>>> tristero69@[omitted]:
>>>
>>> Right.  There's lots of "perspectives"  on
>>>
>>
> UFOs-have-landed-and-abducted-hayseed-fuckheads-and-fucked-them-up-
>>
>>> the-ass-w=
>>> it
>>> h-probes...none
>>> of  which I can take seriously...
>>>
>>>
>>> A...and - Rosswell? =20
>>>
>>> kwp
>>
>>
>
>
>
> 		
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